Poetry is what gets lost in translation-Robert Frost

November 19, 2018

A new Coen Brothers film is always a treat for a super fan like myself, they've had a few missteps (The Ladykillers and Burn After Reading come to mind), but generally they have done little wrong in my book. Furthermore, I liked both most recent films: Inside Llweyn Davis and Hail Cesar! So their new anthology western The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018) was highly anticipated. However, it is a somewhat hard to pin down film, since the tone of the different episodes differ from each throughout. I suppose the harshness of the west is the one common factor, some of the episodes are farcical while others are more tragic in their execution of a story line. First of all, it looks great-the usual top notch cinematography this time is by Bruno Delbonnel who was behind the camera on Inside Llweyn Davis. There is also a great ensemble cast with Tim Blake Nelson, James Franco, Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Brendan Gleeson, and many more. There are several clever and entertaining set pieces throughout the film, in fact, I would be hard pressed to identify my favorite sequence let alone my favorite episode. I suppose it begs for a re-watch, high praise for any film these days-given all the entertainment options available these days.

November 18, 2018

It has been interesting to go back see Yoshishige (Kiju) Yoshida's early film since I started out watching his more mature mid career films like Eros + Massacre and Heroic Purgatory. His first film, Good For Nothing (1960) clearly owes something to Crazed Fruit-it is another film about rich disaffected youth creating drama out of boredom. There's a gang of youths led by a the son of a rich businessman that pulls a prank on his father's secretary who take as a shine to one of the youths and tries to talk him out of hanging out with those bad influences. Like Crazed Fruit there is a a summer sequence that is shot on location in Hayama and in Kanagawa. It is ultimately a tragic story that shows the promise of one of tJapan's leading New Wave directors who would go on to make more serious films in the following decade.

November 15, 2018

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg's film The Hunt (2012) starring Mads Mikkelsen is a compelling thriller. It was co-written by Tobias Lindholm whom I know from his writing for the excellent Danish political series Borgen. It takes a nightmare scenario and makes it feel realistic and the outcome is far from obvious even at the end of the film. Mikkelsen portrays a teacher who lives a lonely life, while fighting with his wife over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love with a colleague and receives good news from his son. However, his new luck is shattered by a misunderstanding that turns his life upside down.

November 14, 2018

Woman Of The Lake (1966) is Japanese New Wave maestro Kiju Yoshida's adaptation of the Yasunari Kawabata novel of the same name. I recently read Kawabata's novel and this film only tangentially resembles that tale in that it has the same major characters-Miyako (Yoshida's muse Mariko Okada) whom is married to Yuzo (Shinsuke Ashida) and having an affair with Kitano (Tamotsu Hayakawa) and the stalker and protagonist of the novel Gimpei (Shigeru Tsuyuguchi). Miyako allows Kitano to take naked pictures of her. But Ginpei ends up with the photos and blackmails the couple. Ginpei has been watching the affair unfold for several months. Facing what she assumes is blackmail, Miyako meets Ginpei in a distant seaside town.This action is drawn out with long stretches without dialogue as Yoshida lovingly captures the town, the city, and seaside locations with masterful cinematography. There's a film within a film that mirrors the action taking place outside that film. Yoshida has used the story of sexual obsession and loneliness made it his own vision of sexual obsession and loneliness in the postwar economic boom of the 60s in Japan.

I recently learned that actor Paul Dano made a film adaptation of Richard Ford's 1990 novel Wildlife. I am a fan of Ford's and since it is a short novel (177 pages) I decided to read it before seeing the film. First off I was struct that the novel takes place in the Inland Empire of the Pacific Northwest-specifically Great Falls, Montana-however other familiar places are mentioned: Spokane, Washington and Sandpoint, Idaho among others. The story is told from the point of view of teenager Joe Brinson in the year of 1960 when wildfires are threatening the city. His family has recently moved there to try and make a new start, but things begin to unravel when his father loses his job as a golf pro at the local golf course. His wife takes up some jobs, starting out as a swim instructor and later a s a book keeper for Warren Miller, a wealthy local businessman in which she becomes involved with. His father becomes obsessed with the fire and leaves the family to fight the fire despite his wife's objections. It is the story of the dissolution of a family told from the point of view of boy not yet a man trying to make sense of his parents as people as well as come to terms with the ever changing world that comes undone. I look forward to seeing how Dano portrays the story.

Nicolas Ray's 55 Days At Beijing (1963) is one of those big style Hollywood productions with a cast of thousands with big stars like Charlton Heston, David Niven, and Ava Gardener. And Heston didn't pay a Chinaman (he played a Mexican in Orson Welles' class A Touch of Evil), however, the Dowager was played by British actress Flora Robson. It is essentially the fictional retelling of a historical account about the 1900 Boxer Rebellion against foreigners in China, U.S. Marine Major Matt Lewis (Heston), aided by British Consul Sir Arthur Robertson (Niven), devises a strategy to keep the rebels at bay until an international military relief force arrives. Garner plays Heston's love interest Baroness Ivanoff, and according to Heston her character was killed off so the producers and director didn't have to put up with her anymore. The massive set recreation was built in Spain for the production. Also of note is that actor/director Juzo Itami had a small role as Colonel Shiba. It was more entertaining than I had expected and is known as a favorite of Martin Scorsese.

November 11, 2018

Liz Garbus' four part documentary for Showtime, The Fourth Estate (2018) is a fascinating and frustrating experience in light of the "facts don't matter/fake news president." The title of the series comes from the common term "the Fourth Estate" for the press' role as independent watchdog that keeps the government in check. The most demoralizing aspect of the recent political culture wars is the sad death of facts, Trump can sit up there and say the media is the enemy of the people" and that they spread "fake news." While Trump is constantly lying, fudging facts, and alluding to untruths all the while with no support, facts, research-it is all a "gut" feeling for him-which is always wrong. But the average Joe has no idea about he check and balances and the three support sources that need to get by editors before most articles see the light of day-this is coming from someone who almost considered journalism a career-today very much a thankless one. It seems to me the average person does not have the mental capacity to fact check or research about a topic to see if it is true or not-there are too many fake news outlets like Fox News that will broadcast any rumor and give it equal ail time as an established fact. These people scream "liberal" bias, but what about where they get their daily news? Most of the people I argue with have the same talking points that are "conservative" approved-I can predict their counterarguments. Most of the time they are rhetorically irresponsible or illogical. You can't have a "real" debate with these people because the parrot the company line. I feel that I can admit that Democrats are not always right and my complaints is that they are too much conservative and kowtow to the right, too "centrists." So I can criticize my own party, I have rarely hear a Trump supporter admit that he ever and made a mistake or misstep-that is very troubling, everywhere I look-sheep.

The Kii peninsula that contains Mie and Wakayama prefectures are two places I've passed on visiitng since it requires a special trip south from a westward destination (i.e. Nagoya or Oasaka). On this long November weekend (TWCU cultural festival) I decided to visit Ise, Mie taking a fiend's advice that Koyasan in Wakayama would be better visited in the summer (cool mountain escape) or winter (lovely snow filled landscape).

This is a sculpture outside Iseshi station near where my hotel was. The cannon under a shinto gate is a curious reminder of the Shinto religion that saw the Emperor as a god and led Japan in a militarized war of aggression in the 19302 and 40s.

One of the most impressive features of the grounds for me were the massive tress in the shrine.

Isekadoya brewery is based in the city and has a small branch outside the Outer Shrine.

Isekadoya Comfort Ale & Ise Pilsner with Matsuzaka beef nikuman.

After a 20-30 minute bus ride I arrived at the Inner Shrine (Naiku), entrance is always through torii gates.

Ise shrine's ancient massive trees are said to be "power spots." "Power spots" are places believed to endow visitors with refreshing or healing energy. In Japan, the concept generally centers around feng shui principles and sites where the Earth's energy is said to well up—meaning many power spots are tied to ancient shrines, creation myths and Shugendo mountain worship.

November 10, 2018

I recently learned about the Kanjiro Kawai House in Higashiyama Gojo not far from Kiyomizudera temple in Kyoto. Kanjior Kawai (1890-1966) was a key potter and artist. It is a nice mixture of modern and traditional elements.

I've been meaning to read Lafcadio Hean's collection of Japanese ghost stories and nonfiction discussions of insects, Kwaidan (1904)for some time. I was familiar with some of the stories which were adapted in Masaaki Kobayashi's 1964 visually stunning film of the same name. The main two stories from the film that came from the book were: ""The Story of Mimi-nashi Hoichi" and "Yuki-Onna." Some of the other stories are hit or miss in my level of interest. "Hi-mawari" is notable in that it was from Hearn's own personal experience and was written in first person and set in Wales. The final sections are discussions of insects such as butterflies, mosquitoes, and ants.